Roasted Banana Bread

I've a writers block. Have had one since a week...I have absolutely no idea how to blog anymore. Not that I ever did consistently blog, but something is just amiss right now. To be honest, I haven't written a thing since I left my job with the hope and drive to start something new.

If you really know me, you know that the enthusiasm to jump into something new faded out within a week and a lot of anxiety and insecurity took over. Like, ruinous amounts of it. I basically turned to food for comfort and have been toying with the idea of getting back to the blog ever since. I've been thinking and thinking about which recipe I should share and what I'd write along with it. The writing part continues to evade me; even as I type this. But, I've got the recipe part down. And trust me, it's a wonderful one.

Also, what do you think of the new blog? My little sister, who's studying to be a graphic designer, made the header and I absolutely love it. She's super talented and you guys should totally check out her website.

Here's Banana Bread, version 2.0.

Banana Bread is comfort food for me. As a result, I continually tweaked the basic recipe till it ticked all the boxes. Moist, banana-ey, nutty, hint of spice and easy. More often than not however, the bananas in the fruit basket at home aren't ripe enough for banana bread. So I did a quick search and found out how to ripen bananas super quick for times when a banana bread craving hit. That's how the addition of roasted bananas to plain ole banana bread came about and my oh my, did it change the entire game or what?! Add to that brown butter (or the fancier and chicer buerre noisette) and we've got ourselves a winner. From humble and homely to fancy and (almost) gourmet.

There's still a host of ingredients/toppings you could add to the already glorious Roasted Banana Bread. Nutella, for starters. Walnuts, which do form a part of my tweaked recipe but I forgot to add them, oh well. Chocolate chips, rum, Bailey's Irish Cream (droooool). How 'bout rum/ bourbon soaked fruit? Note to self: must try with some bourbon soaked cherries!

ROASTED BANANA BREAD

Ingredients

2 ripe bananas

60 grams butter, browned

60 grams brown sugar

1 egg

75 grams all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tbsp yogurt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 sliced banana (optional)

Confectioners sugar (for dusting; optional)

Date syrup (optinal)

Method

Sieve the dry ingredients together and set aside.

Roast the bananas in an oven preheated to 220 C for 15 - 20 minutes, turning once or until the peel is blackened and the bananas soft. Turn down the temperature to 170 C.

Once the bananas are well roasted, peel them and mash with the help of a fork or whisk.

In a separate bowl, beat the brown butter and brown sugar together.

Whisk in the egg, then the yogurt.

Stir in the mashed banana.

Fold in the dry ingredients.

Transfer the batter to prepared cake tin, place the banana slices on top and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Transfer the banana bread onto a plate. Dust with confectioners sugar and drizzle a bit of date syrup. Hog.